Web Designer Success guide: How to profit from Freelance Web Design - Kevin Airgid

Web Designer’s Success Guide is the definitive guide to starting your own freelance Web design business. In this book he gives designers step-by-step instructions on how to achieve the following: Transition from full-time to self-employment Freelance on the side to make additional income Find new clients and keep them coming back for more Market your freelance business Manage your projects professionally Price your services appropriately

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Dedication

I dedicate this book to my wife Crona, without her patience and positive support this book and my successful career would not be possible

“Marriage is our last, best chance to grow up.”

Copyright 2006 Airgid Media Inc.

All rights reserved No part of this book shall be reproduced or used anywhere You can share and copy this PDF book with anyone you like But do not copy the contents and try to make money from it OK While every e ort was made to ensure the accuracy of this book, errors do happen This book is provided “as is” and the author makes no warranties on the content or procedures con- tained herein The author shall have neither liability nor responsibility to any person or entity with respect to any loss or damages arising from the information contained in this book.

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FORWARD By Jonathan Clark 4

CHAPTER 1 Starting up 6

CHAPTER 2 Tooting your own horn 6

CHAPTER 3 Oice on the cheap 7

CHAPTER 4 When projects go wrong 

CHAPTER 5 How to share your knowledge and make money 4

CHAPTER 6 Project management and pricing 49

CHAPTER 7 Teach your clients to make bread 68

RESOURCES Things you can use 80

Get this book in Printed Form!

Why buy a printed version? It lasts longer and stays together better with a

cover It’s easier to read You can give it as a gift to someone after you are done reading It’s easier to follow the tutorials with a printed version It’s cheap!

Get the printed book, with a shinny color cover :

http://book.airgid.com/

Everybody needs a hand they can hold along this journey, someone they can look up to and say help when the going gets tough Sometimes that hand is there and very o en it is notWhat Kevin aims to o er you with this guidebook is a helping hand some reassurance or even

a kick start along this journey Kevin points out crevasses where he or other people have fallen into, but he also provides good pointers for short cuts on the path and things you can do on those quiet days where not much is happening… and very importantly, he teaches you to ration your food (money) wisely

An indispensable book for the rst timer and a good read also for somebody with a bit of rience already on those paths as everybody can learn from other peoples experiences

expe-Let your journey to the top of that mountain be a challenging and fruitful one and don’t forget

to take your camera with you!

Jonathan Clark

www.jonathan-clark.com

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starting up

First and foremost, thank you for buying my book! The money you spent will go to a good cause – most notably my daughter’s education fund In turn, I hope to repay your kindness and interest in freelance Web design with fruitful chapters, chock-full of useful tidbits and practi-cal advice This will enable you to amass an empire t for taking over the world to strike out

on your own or to at least work in the evenings to make some extra cash I have tried as much

as possible to make this book “fat free” We have all purchased books where there were large amounts of ller just to make the book look thicker on the shelf So no fat here just what youneed to know to build your freelance Web design business

A er doing a li le market research it became very apparent that there were no books that reallytaught people the ins-and-outs of running a successful freelance Web design business Yes, there are other small-business books that try to cover everything from creating a business plan to do-ing your taxes but these are rarely industry speci c They are ni y if you want to be a jack ofall trades and master of none This book is aimed speci cally at creative individuals and it willteach you how to maximize your creative talent in order to make money Nonetheless there aresome books that o er valuable insights on how to run the accounting and legal side of your newbusiness venture I list a few I highly recommend at the end of this book To keep you focused and on task I decided it was be er if we did not cover those subjects in depth

I love designing interactive Web sites, and it is fantastic that people pay me to do something I love I have been working freelance since 1993 There is nothing more rewarding than managing your own creative process and producing creative that has not been tampered with by an overly opinionated supervisor Being the master of your own domain is truly a pleasure, especially when it comes to producing a awlessly designed Web site Of course freelance is not withoutits headaches, and I hope to help you avoid some of them in the following chapters Learn from

my mistakes and successes and you will nd building your freelance Web design business to be

a very rewarding endeavor, both for your ego and your pocket book

Why designer’s freelance – fun or fear?

It has been my experience that designers freelance for one of two reasons for fun or out of fearYou need to decide what “f” word is motivating you It was the fear factor that drove me into freelance I was employed at a small interactive rm that laid me o due to an economic downturn I tried to nd a full time position that paid as well as my last one but there where no jobopportunities in my area For fear of loosing my house, my car and the shirt of my back, I had

to nd paying freelance clients and fast Fortunately I had been freelancing on the side for eral years and I was able to convert some of my part-time clients into full-time revenue streams For any Web designer wishing to freelance in the future, that is what I recommend If you are working full time right now either inside the interactive eld or in another discipline com-pletely, I highly recommend you start to build up a small base of freelance clients This makes the jump into full time freelance less di cult and not as overwhelming That way you can be

sev-as motivated by the fun factor sev-as you are by the fear factor The problem with starting freelance full-time or “cold turkey”, is that you do not have enough business to sustain even a modest income There is nothing more stressful than trying to nd new clients simply because you havetoo many bills to pay It is much be er both for your mental health and your bank account if you

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build up a small base of clients rst By acquiring a list of clients and potential clients before you

go freelance full time you can achieve the following

Build your project management and creative management skills

Give yourself the con dence and experience necessary to be successful

Build a network of client connections

Decide if you can handle the headaches of freelancing full-time

Learn how to be er manage your nances

By doing a li le freelance on the side you can learn a lot about what being a full time freelancer

is really like I think it is crazy when I read get rich quick advertisements claiming to givepeople everything they need to open their own pro table business in thirty days or less It snever that easy Being self-employed is not for everyone If you can not manage your own time

or your part-time freelance clientele, or you

have trouble with self-motivation, then

start-ing a freelance Web design business may not

be for you

A line of credit: a lifeline or

a rope to hang you?

A few years before I began freelancing

full-time, I had the good luck to become friends

with a nancial planner At the moment I was

working full-time for a world-renowned

ad-vertising agency and I was pulling in a good

salary Financial problems were the furthest

thing from my mind, but my friend insisted I

apply for a line of credit for a rainy day

emer-gency His advice paid o because a few years

later I used that line of credit to help

jump-start my full-time freelance business

The best time to apply for a line of credit is when you are already employed full-time This way the bank is more likely to give you an amount of credit su cient to meet all your emerg-ing needs Think of the line of credit as your insurance policy and not another bank account or credit card You will need to suppress the impulse to shop until you drop I will talk more about that later when you consider updating your so ware and purchasing the PDA with built

in digital camera and electric toothbrush Like my friend said, the line of credit is more like a rainy day fund to help get your new business through the rough spots

I recommend anyone who is going to jump into the freelance business full-time to either save enough money to cover your expenses for at least three months or to obtain this line of credit I

do not claim to be a business or nancial expert keep in mind I have a visual art s degree but

my own experience has taught me that running your own business can have numerous upsand downs You need to be prepared for when you experience the down times

Freelance is a family afair

When I decided to freelance full-time, I had a long talk with my spouse The decision to move from a bi-weekly pay check to the roller coaster income of a freelancer was a decision we needed

to make as a couple It is important that you consult your signiicant other before you begin this risky adventure You will need the emotional and possibly the inancial support as you grow your business Without my wife’s consistent in-come, I would have been unable to help pay the mortgage in the irst few months of starting my freelance business

Designing your freelance Web site

One of the most important parts of your advertising arsenal is your Web site Your Web site is the place where you display your product to potential customers Your product is design and interactive media, and it is important that these potential customers can view a wide range of projects O en interactive designers will post what they feel is their best work to their Web siteWhile this is a good idea I have learned that it is be er to have a wide range of styles and types

of projects posted online Even if some of the work is not your best it is be er to post projectsthat represent a wide range of work For instance, I have work posted in my portfolio from when I helped design the 1999 refresh of the

Chevrolet.com Web site The designs look old

and dated, but the brand name recognition

helps build my credibility with new clients

As designers we are o en very critical of our

own work I have been pleasantly surprised

by how much a new client likes a past project

of mine that I consider old and inferior to my

more modern work

When you design your freelance Web site you

need to think about your target audience

Ev-ery designer has their own style and market

niche You need to decide if you want to do

work for any or all of the following

advertis-ing agencies B B organizations B C

organi-zations non pro ts and mom and pop shops

It is a good idea to do a li le research before you begin sketching out the design Try to learnabout what your target audience looks for when they select a freelance Web site designer In the case of my site, Airgid.com, I have gone through many iterations over the years One of those iterations consisted of a heavy Flash interface that infused aliens and robots throughout the Web site The theme was a s horror movie

The A ack of the Killer Web site Fig generated a tremendous amount of a ention in theonline design community When I launched the Web site it was featured in several design por-tals around the world My Web site usage statistics skyrocketed and I even had to move up to a new hosting plan to keep up with the bandwidth the site used Although it was receiving a lot

of a ention from the Web design community it did not generate new work I did a li le diggingand talked to some of my clients Most of them did not really understand why I had a slew of aliens and robots dominating my site They could not see the “business logic” behind it

Another big problem with this version of my Web site, was that access to the most important formation was four clicks deep An analysis of my server logs revealed that users went straight for the portfolio section they viewed a few projects and then they le The time spent searchingfor this area and the hindrance of not being able to view brief highlights of my work became a major concern Users where forced to follow this path to look at my portfolio pieces

in-Splash page > home page > portfolio page > portfolio piece

SUCCESS TIP

Danger, Will Robinson, danger!

Being a creative person does not always mix well with starting your own business, and running your own freelance Web design business can be big business, even if it is just little old you! Secur-ing a line of credit can be the best way to ensure security for some bumps in the road as you start out However, individuals with loads of debt may think twice before taking on more credit It is better to pay of or down the debt you have irst before attempting to go freelance full-time

to make a decision fast… should I hire Kevin Airgid to do my work, or should I look elsewhere?

I have since created a leaner, meaner Web site (Fig 1.2) Even though it is much more oriented it has just the right touch of creative are and professionalism I have gained bothhighly creative and engaging projects, as well as steady corporate design assignments The port-folio now follows the popular Amazon com one click methodology When the user arrives myportfolio is the rst thing they see The home page is cleverly disguised as the portfolio pageand my product is served for consumption by the masses Keep the following lessons in mind

business-as you design your next freelance Web site

Your work should sell itself Do not worry about lengthy explanations or marketing jargonfor each project A short punchy paragraph emphasizing the skills utilized is su cientMost users only skim text online

Make your portfolio easy to access and fast to download Keep in mind even speedy rate T1 connections partition bandwidth and can slow down

corpo-Even though your clients may want to hire you for your Flash animation skills, do not make them wait to see your portfolio Resist the temptation to use your portfolio interface to ex

your animation muscles If you need to

show this o create a separate demo

reel” that users have an option to select

Corporate design may feel boring to

Web designers but in my experience it

helps keep a Web site grounded in

real-ity, especially when you have a lot going

on in your portfolio If we do our job, the

information architecture and interface

de-sign should compliment one another and

provide a pleasant user experience

Finding work – the cold

e-mail campaign

So how do you go about ge ing a small base

of paying clients? The way I started was by

simply using my network of friends and associates I heard it once said that philosophy is mon sense dressed up in a 3-piece suite And it is true even for a one-man-show freelance busi-ness E-mail your friends, family, associates and acquaintances and tell them you are looking for freelance work You will be surprised how fast e-mails can get passed around Before you know

com-it you may have your rst freelance project For instance I e mailed a friend of mine who waslooking for work She interviewed at a large advertising agency in Detroit, Michigan While on the interview she learned they needed to hire some interactive designers Her e-mail gave me the scoop that this particular agency needed help The lead got me a 3-month contract that I would have never learned about if I did not e-mail her

w

Figure My new Web site is only Kb in size and the portfolio is one click access

SUCCESS TIP

When NOT to send an e-mail

Never send cold e-mails on Friday or Monday

I have found that most marketing managers, creative directors (and the like) are fried by the time Friday rolls around A cold e-mail sent on a Friday will probably be ignored or deleted If you send an e-mail on the weekend and it is viewed

on Monday, it will most likely get lost in the rest

of the SPAM and internal company memos that get sent out I have found sending e-mail the rest

of the week to achieve better success This is also true with cold calling

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One of the things I learned early on when I started doing freelance is how powerful e-mail can

be as a tool to gain new business We all use e-mail to communicate with friends, family and workers, but we really do not think of it as an

co-advertising medium E-mail is one of the best

ways to nd hot leads for new business If

someone is not interested in your e-mail they

just delete it, and if they are interested they

can reply to you within seconds It is the best

way to reach out to potential clients without

bothering them on the phone or knocking on

their door

When I e-mail someone looking for work I

keep my e-mails very short and to the point

Think about who your target audience is for

your e-mail and what they would be most

interested in knowing about what you have

to o er E mails with long winded

market-ing” speak really do not work Most of my

clients have one thing in common – lack

of time They are grazers when it comes to

information, and they typically skim e-mails

from people they do not know or delete them

without reading them You only have a few milliseconds to catch their a ention before your email ends up in the trash

I have found a method that works extremely well for gathering quali ed candidates for my email campaigns This method takes more work than just sending e-mails to the arbitrary info@company com but you will achieve be er results and your e orts will be rewarded For thisexample I will demonstrate how I would go about nding the name and e mail address of acreative director at a large advertising agency You could also use this method for the marketing manager of a B B company or any other related eld

Step 1: Finding the name

The fastest way for me to nd the name of a creative director for an ad agency is to look at tradepublication Web sites For instance in Detroit near where I live there is a magazine called BigIdea This magazine helps represent the local communication arts community Many creativedirectors names are published here when they win awards or land new projects It is an excel-lent resource for nding potential leads You can also nd the names of these people by readingcompany press releases O en they will mention the names of those individuals involved withgenerating new business Sometimes a Google search on a company name (or the agency’s cli-ents) will yield key contact names Okay, we have followed these steps and found our name For illustration purposes we will call our lead “John Smith”

SUCCESS TIP

SPAM is bad for business

Want to kiss your freelance business good-bye? Keep sending e-mail to people who have not replied to you The Internet is a small place and

if you constantly send e-mail to people who are not interested, you will cause your self more harm than good People have a long memory when it comes to annoying e-mails You do not want to tick of the head of an interactive group for a major agency – one day it will come back

to haunt you! My rule is one cold e-mail does the job If they are interested they will respond, or even keep the e-mail for future reference Keep a list of everyone you have e-mailed and make sure you do not cold e-mail them twice

Step 2: Finding the e-mail

Most companies have a strict naming convention for sta e mail addresses You can crack thisnaming convention by looking for clues on their Web site Start by searching for a sales contact You can use this to decipher the naming convention For instance, the sales manager is listed as Jim Doe and his e mail is jdoe company com So the naming convention is le er of rst namethen full last name”

Step 3: Writing the efective e-mail

Here are some examples of e ective e mails that have landed me work in the past

Target Client: Contact at medium-size company.

Comments This e mail landed me several medium size company Web site redesigns

Ever thought of a Web site redesign? Something to make your site stand out above your petition online I have done work for clients such as Ford Marrio Hotel and Lexus to name

com-a few com-and I ccom-an o er com-a rcom-ange of freelcom-ance prices

To learn more, please view my Web site:

h p www airgid com

Why hire airgid com

h p www airgid com why hire

Target Client: Creative Director

Comments This is the standard e mail I send to any large ad agency This e mail includes aresume as well Your work history can sell you just as much as your portfolio of work

Ever need a freelance Web Flash designer Please consider my services

Portfolio Web site

h p www airgid com

Why hire Kevin Airgid?

h p www airgid com why hire

Resume:

h p www airgid com resume

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Target Client: Oice Furniture suppliers - UK

Comments I sent this to probably di erent companies It gained me one quali ed leadwhich is actually a good ratio considering the number of companies I e-mailed

I have recently completed a Web site for a company similar to yours:

h p www russello cecenter com

Ever thought of doing a Web site redesign to make your site more interactive, and easier to update My client Russell O ce Supply can now update their Web site themselves It is easy to do Let me know if you are interested in a cost estimate

You can learn more here:

h p www airgid com

Why hire airgid com

h p www airgid com why hire

PS I am based in Canada and the exchange rate from British Pound to Canadian dollar is

an added bene t to you

Amnesty 40th Time line (Copyright Amnesty International)

Other places to ind work?

Another excellent way to get your feet wet with freelance is to volunteer your skills for a charity

If you are working full-time and do not know where to start looking for work, a tion is to start o with charity work Volunteering to do a Web site for a charity will enable you

recommenda-to test out your project management skills, and more importantly your ability recommenda-to deal with a client directly The other excellent bene t to doing a project for free is you can typically dictatethe design This means you can add a really nice project to your portfolio, which can help you sell your services later There are many charities out there who would bene t greatly from yourtalents

My rst big freelance project was a pro bono interactive Flash timeline I did for Amnesty national This piece landed me paying gigs with clients such as CBC News and General Motors More importantly, Amnesty International enjoyed working with me, and actually hired me to

Inter-do more interactive pieces However, Inter-doing freelance work for charities is not without its trations O en charities have an intense bureaucratic structure and you will need to be patientwith commi ees and several layers of approval Yet working with charities can give you a greatsense of accomplishment as you help build something for a worthwhile cause

frus-Chapter Summary

Typically publishers force authors like me to write these blasted summaries for every chapter

I never read them, do you? They are a waste of time - who needs a summary of what they just read A er all this is not a schoolbook So from this point on no more summaries at the end ofchapters! Like I said, no fat in this book!

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CHAPTER TWO

tooting your

own horn

Finding free advertising online

Your mother always told you not to brag, well that is not going to get you anywhere in the freelance world You need to shout from the hilltops your successes, so that you can turn past projects into future projects The best way to do this is to broadcast it to all your past clients, and

to as many news boards and Web designer portals as you can By having Web design portals such as Pixelsurgeon com Surfstation lu and Creativebehavior com news your latest creationyou start to build link credit online The more places that post links to your work, the more reputable your credentials become The more link credit you have, the more likely people are going to nd you when they type Kick Ass Web site Designer into Google Google will rankyour site as important if more people are linking to you Thus, your search engine ranking will

go up and people will be more likely to nd your site

For instance in this layout you can see the description of what my company does on the rstpart of the page which loads a er the title Research shows that advanced search engines donot just read the top of the page but they also scan down the page to the bo om to nd otherkeywords

If you were to repeat the paragraph at the top, and use some of the same words, you would help increase your search engine placement Search engines such as Google use sophisticated mathematical formulas to pick up how many times a particular word is used on a page It then indexes the page according to this word count and several other factors

I also recommend posting to as many forums online as you can More popular forums, such as Ultrashock.com and Macromedia.com, will let you “market” your latest creation for free Even if you are working full-time for a company you should still “news” your projects online Your cli-ent will not mind the additional exposure for their company Having your name associated with

a full-time project also helps build your link credit for your part-time freelance

About Us

AirGid Media Inc is a design studio that builds dynamic media solutions Services include Flashmedia, web site design, content management systems, 3D animation, presentations, illustration, branding and kiosks

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Google Yourself

by Sco Allen

h p thevirtualhandshake com Reprint by Permission

In December 2002, Randy Cohen of the New York Times answered a reader’s ethical question regarding a friend who had used Google to do some background checking on a man she had been on a date with When she learned that the man, a doctor, had been involved in several malpractice suits she had a much lower opinion of the man which presumably a ected therelationship

The ready availability of information on the Internet makes it easy for people to do free basic background checks on people before entering into business relationships with them This is something you should de nitely do yourself before hiring anybody as an employee consultant

or contractor

So what does Google have to say about you If you don t know you d be er nd out Thoseskeletons in your closet may not be as hidden as you think Or worse yet, you may have some-one else’s skeletons!

First of all, you want to make sure that you’re one of the top people in a search for your name,

or preferably the top person This is not so di cult when you have a distinctive name such asDavid Teten A moderate amount of online activity and publishing will ensure that you rise above the handful of other people with the same name On the other hand, if you have a very common name like Sco Allen with numerous other people with that name being active on-line you have to work especially hard to even be on the rst page of listings at last check I hadnally go en to the spot

In the case of a personal name, the strategies for improving your search engine placement are simple Make sure your name is included in the <TITLE> tag on your page, and prominently used throughout the page The other thing to work on is ge ing inbound links to your site pref-erably containing your name Two excellent ways to do this are

Develop an HTML signature to use in Web-based discussion forums that has your name as a hyper link to your Web site Every message you post then becomes a link to your site for the search engines to add to their index

Publish articles anywhere and everywhere you can, making sure that they always include

an extended byline that links to your Web site preferably with your name as the text for thelink

These strategies will improve your link popularity signi cantly one of the major factors inmost search engine ranking algorithms

Now what about those skeletons Don t just go through the rst three pages look througheverything You might want to put your name in quotes i e around results vs DonnaFisher over results to reduce the number of results

So what do you do if you nd some dirt on yourself If it s downright inaccurate or slanderousyou can, of course, try to contact the site and have them remove it If, on the other hand, it’s a

ma er of public record like the malpractice suits above then you need some damage controlYou may just want to provide an ample supply of good information about you well positioned w

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in the search engines, and the other can just languish in obscurity Or, you may want to make sure people hear it from you rst or that you at least have an answer about it on your site to

“set the record straight” If the issue is major enough, you may want to hire a professional PR person to handle it, but it is something you can take care of yourself, as well, if you’re on a lim-ited budget But the rst step is awareness Make sure you know what the virtual you lookslike to the rest of the world Google yourself

Note You can read more from Sco Allen online at his site h p thevirtualhandshake com

Keeping in Contact

One of the biggest struggles I have found being a freelancer is keeping in contact with my clients Sometimes my clients will go ve months before they do another project with me Overtime I have learned I need to keep my name and e-mail address in front of them constantly, so they think of me rst when they have a new project they are considering But how do you dothis without bugging the hell out of them? These are busy people, so sending them jokes and

‘hi how are you doing?’ e-mails will only annoy them and damage your reputation You need to make sure you are a valuable asset to these individuals Approximately once a month I send alink to all my clients (both current and past), regarding new technology that is directly related

to a past project I completed For example I do a lot of Flash development for my clients Manytimes they ask me if they can convert MS O ce documents such as Word and PowerPoint toother formats such as Flash and HTML So as I am sur ng the Web I am always on the lookoutfor so ware or technology that will help solve their problems Then once a month I send an

e mail broadcast to my client network with a short paragraph pointing them to new so ware

or a Web site My clients love these e-mails

because it is information they can use

I also send out e-mails whenever I create

a really innovative and successful project

O en old clients will see the new Flash piece

I have created, they will like it and want to do

something similar Showing past clients your

current work on a regular basis is an

excel-lent way to generate new work The best way

to stay in touch with clients is via e-mail, but

I have found a be er solution than just

us-ing your e-mail client to send out these mass

mailings I use a small server PHP application

called “PHPMailList” I use PHPMailList to

store all the e-mails of potential, current and

past clients When I am cold e-mailing and a

client e-mails me back saying they are

inter-ested in my work, but do not have a budget

for the project, I add them to my client

mail-ing list This way I am certain that this

poten-tial lead will at least see an e-mail from me

On my site I place an “HTML” link under my main Flash movie This link will take search engine spiders, and users without Flash to a site that contains all the needed information in HTML Creating this HTML site will also help build your keyword index A good idea is to place a highly descriptive paragraph at the top of your HTML home page, which should contain appropriate buzzwords relative to the design services you ofer

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every month or so By keeping my name in front of the lead I have a greater chance of obtaining

a project The nice thing about using so ware like PHPMailList is you can enable your users toautomatically unsubscribe from the list if they do not want to receive your e-mails I have yet to have a client unsubscribe The rule is to not send more than one e-mail a month, and keep them short and useful

Mailing List Software: The free and the excellent.

Like with all things in life you get what you pay for I understand that budgets can be tight when you start your own business This is the reason I o er two tools to achieve the same endsThe following tutorial is how to install a free PHPMailList so ware It works well but it lacksmany of the features other professional tools o er If you are looking for a cost e ective tool Ihighly recommend all by ActiveCampagin h p www activecampaign com The sofwarecosts around USD you host the script so there are no monthly fees and comes with awhole host of professional features You can time delay an

email blast so it will be sent on a future date It can track how

many times a user reads an email, how many times users click

a link in an email… all sorts of goodies that help make each

email I send out more e ective The best part about the system

is the fact that users can unsubscribe to the email newsle er

So if one of my clients doesn’t want to recieve the emails anymore they simply unsubscribe ing the handy link at the bo om of every email By default All adds this to each email that

us-is sent out Thus-is us-is a really friendly tool both for the sender and the reciepent of the email The ability to add custom HTML templates gives users the ability to send professional emails ev-ery time Finally all o ers a free install service so you don t have to monkey with CMOD orother install issues

If you don t have any money and want a bare bones mail list so ware then read on other wise Irecommend 12all

nd this out Most hosting companies allow server side scripts by default This script requiresPHP Version to be installed on the server Do not worry if you do not have this informationhandy Most good Web hosting companies update their PHP version regularly, so most likely

this is something

you will not have to

worry about Now

I have turned o all

the se ings in the

OS to make the

win-dows print be er for

link The ZIP le also

contains more technical

instructions if you wish

your local hard drive

of your Web site and

call it “maillist”, and

unzip the contents of

the maillist zip to this

directory (Fig 2.1)

Step 3: Secure your data.

Create another directory outside the “maillist” directory and

give it a unique name This is where you are going to store the mail list data and password information I named this directory supercrazystu make sure you give yours a di erentname for security reasons and now move these two les from your maillist directory into thesupercrazystu directory

1 “list.dat”

ml con g dat

Figure 2.1

Figure 2.2

Step 4: Upload the iles to your server.

Upload the les to your server using your favorite FTP program I use CuteFTP but any FTPprogram will do You can place your “maillist” directory in your root directory on your server Some Web hosts will not allow PHP or any other script for that ma er to run outside the CGIBIN directory Check with your server admin if this is the case for your host You will need to place just the “maillist” directory into the CGI-BIN directory if this is the case

What does “Full server path” mean?

Reprinted by permission from scriptygoddess com Author Jennifer Stuart

In as simple terms as possible full server path refers to where your le is in relation to theserver your le is si ing on This will almost always include directories that are NOT Web ac-cessible It basically STARTS with the very root of your server and works down the folder hier-archy chain from there

You may wonder why I just don’t hand over your particular server path and tell you to swap out the folder names The problem is that many servers are set up di erently Depending onwho you host with what type of server it is how it s organized there can be huge variationsThere s a few things you can do to try and gure out what your server path is

Option Build rst read directions later

Obviously, this is not completely recommended LOL! But if you do happen to have a script running and it s spi ing an error out pay close a ention to the error messages If the problem

is with the path you ve provided the error will probably look like

Warning you did something wrong blah blah blah in home jsmith public html my le php online 10

Just a li le side track about using error messages to help debug your scripts it may be toosimple to mention, but when you get errors like this, GO LOOK AT LINE 10! (or whatever line

is mentioned in the rst error Examine it VERY carefully If it looks okay to you GO LOOK

AT LINE 9! Then, GO LOOK AT LINE 11! If the line mentioned in the error isn’t actually ing the problem sometimes the real problem is occuring on the line before or a er the linementioned Okay ge ing back on track You see that path in bold THAT my friends is yourfull server path to your le If ANOTHER path is mentioned in the blah blah blah part andit’s missing some parts or directories that you see in bold - you’ve entered in the wrong path in your script and this could very well be the cause for the error in the rst place

caus-This is huge I can’t tell you the number of times people miss that very easy clue PHP knows your server path It s handing it to you on a pla er Listen to it

Option I repeat PHP knows your server path Listen to it

There is a great li le function in PHP phpinfo And actually another sidetrack If you re not

sure if your server is running php

or not using this simple li le

function will tell you Just create

a le that has the following and

nothing else in it, and upload it to

your server

<?php

phpinfo();

?>

Pull that page up in a browser,

and you should get a TON of

in-formation about php, your server

It s pre y cool actually And this

page will also tell you what your

server path looks like!

Once you have that page loaded

up in your browser nd the

vari-able “PATH_TRANSLATED” or

SERVER PATH

TRANSLAT-ED”]” (I’m relatively sure that

should show up on the majority

of con gurations if there s a

bet-ter variable you suggest, please

feel free to correct me in the

com-ments) The value of this variable

will be the full server path to the le you re looking at It will probably look like

/home/jsmith/public_html/testphpinfo.php

or maybe even:

C:\wwwroot\myiles\testphpinfo.php

Option Hold my hand please

If you have a really nice host, that doesn’t mind being bugged - you can also try directly asking them If they don t get what you re asking for you can explain you re trying to run a php scriptand the instructions required your using the server path to the le

~ Jennifer Stuart

scriptygoddess.com

Step 5: Edit the Coniguration Setting

(Yes, one line of code to change! I told you this was going to be easy!)

Using a simple text editor you can now edit the con guration se ings I use Notepad on the PCYou could easily use Macromedia Dreamweaver or Simple Text on the Mac Open the mail-

Figure 2.3

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list php le and nd the line that says

// The full server path to the coniguration ile

$conig_ile = “c:\\path\\to\\ml_conig.dat”;

Now change the path to the path of the le on your Web server If you do not know the fullserver path see the help box title What does Full server path mean For instance my serverpath to the ml con g dat is

/home/stannemi/public_html/maillist/supercrazystuff/

So I would change my server path in the script to look like this

// The full server path to the coniguration ile

$conig_ile = “/home/stannemi/public_html/maillist/supercrazystuff/ml_conig.dat”;

Step 6: Upload and CHMOD the iles

Now upload the changed maillist php to the maillist directory and overwrite the old le onthe server

Now CHMOD the les so they have

permission to be edited on the server

CHMOD is a fancy Unix term for

change mode This is the Unix

com-mand and system call to change the

ac-cess permissions of a named le You will

want to set the two les in your

super-crazystu directory to the following

list dat CHMOD or if

Step 7: Testing it out

OK if everything went well type this URL into your Web browser

h p www yourservername maillist maillist php

Figure 2.4

And you should see the following screen

(Fig 2.4)

If you see this screen you have successfully

installed the script If you do not see it, or

you see an error message like “Could not

open con guration le then re check

your full server path Most likely you have

a typo there If that does not seem to be the

problem, and the script says something

like “Script Error”, then you may need to try to install the script

into your CGI-BIN directory If all else fails, go online and post your question to one of the many PHP news boards online for help You will nd as I have that this community is always willing

to help out us newbies!

Step 8: Running the Admin

Now using your Web browser, go to this URL to access the admin (you will want to bookmark this URL for later use

h p www yourservername maillist maillist php action admin

The admin login screen will appear Use the default login and password

Username user

Password pass

You need to change this default login and password NOW! so others will not get into your tem Here is how to do it Fig

sys-Select the Administration radio bu on and click the Submit bu on

You will now see a form eld with all of the default se ings You need to change the following

se ings

Username

Password

List Name

The full path to the list dat le same as your ml con g dat le earlier

Now change the other variables to match your site Fig The rest of the program is pre yeasy to use Users can sign up and subscribe to the newsle er if you place a public link on yoursite The public link would be

h p www yourservername com maillist mailllist php

< 6 />Figure 2.6

CHAPTER THREE

oice on the cheap

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Disillusionment

When I set up my home o ce I had many grand visions of what I wanted it to be like I hadvisions of those cool DOTCOM companies lots of open space maybe a lo with exposed brickand hard wood oors Earth to Kevin Earth to Kevin snap back to reality I came My

o ce is a small bedroom in a nice middle class home in the middle of suburbia The reason Ichoose to have my o ce here is several fold money money and did I mention money Do notspend your hard-earned (and trust me, when

you are self-employed it is hard-earned)

money on things you do not need I learned

very early on to only spend money on things

that would either directly make me money,

or that would make my work be er which

inadvertently makes me money) If clients are

not going to see your o ce then do not waste

your money on expensive desks lighting and

interior décor It was a great temptation when

I rst started freelancing to go out and spend

my rst few paychecks on a new desk and

cool lighting for my o ce While these might

have made my o ce look great they did

nothing to improve my bo om line

When you are self employed it is best to keep the fringe expenses down in the rst year Beloware some of the ways I have saved money in my home o ce My guidelines for any purchasingdecision for my o ce is two fold Will this purchase make me money Will this purchasesave me money over time I like to go cheap on my desk ling cabinet drawers and shelvingThis leaves more money to spend on important things like the latest version of Adobe Photo-shop and RAM!

SUCCESS TIP

Yellow Page Ad?

In all the years I have been doing freelance I have never once purchased a Yellow Pages ad Other freelance Web designers I have talked to have also told me that when they did purchase

a Yellow Pages ad, they received more resumes than job contracts The only calls they did receive for work were for demanding clients requesting two hundred dollar Web sites Considering the price of a Yellow Pages ad, you may ind it hard to recoup your cost

around USD You simply screw the legs on each corner of the door I have also seenpeople use doors with loads of paint on them which creates an interesting texture and is fun tolook at They also have a piece of glass cut to cover the surface of the door Although ge ing apiece of glass cut for this size of door will probably end up costing you more than a solid wooddesk, so be careful

Seating

In the past four years of working out of my home based o ce I have gone through two low end

o ce chairs which cost around

dol-lars Canadian Within the rst two years the

rst chair lost pressure in the cylinder that

makes it go up and down The second chair’s

fabric surface started to stretch a er less than

two years, which caused the foam padding

to dislodge I decided it was time to invest

some money into a piece of o ce equipment

which I use 9+ hours a day If you think about

it, we will spend a lot of money on the latest

and greatest computer, but when it comes to

our bodies (and ultimately our health), well,

most people seem to skip that part I know

that when I was building my home o ce I

did not want to spend the money on a chair

But in the long run I would have saved

my-self money and trouble if I just went out and bought the right product

So, I took the plunge and purchased a new Mirra chair by Herman Miller This chair is very much like the award winning Aeron chair by the same maker, but I think with a few new twists The rst bene t over the Aeron chair is the price The Mirra cost me Canadian with all theoptions whereas the base Aeron chair started at For those of us building a home o cethis may be a bit expensive Having worked at several employers that supplied an Aeron chair

I am well acquainted with the huge bene ts of a great chair I could sit in the Aeron chair forhours at a stretch and not feel any discomfort A er having had the Mirra chair for two weeks

I can say that this chair has the same e ect I can sit on it for hours with li le or no strain on

my back Just a side note the dealer let me try it out for a week before signing the bo om line

I was hooked within hours.) With my old chairs, my spine would feel horrible I would have shooting pain up and down my back a er si ing for a few hours With the Mirra chair I quicklyforgot about those problems

All ergonomic specialists will tell you that si ing in your chair for too long is bad for you As

a Web designer I o en need to sit for hours uninterrupted to get into the groove to producegood designs lots of co ee long hours si ing at my computer and waiting for inspiration tocome I will be the rst to admit productivity is enhanced when one is comfortable This chairalso makes it much more comfortable to sit in when it is hot because the mesh seating surface, called “Aireweave Suspension seat” (similar to what the Aeron chair was famous for) breaths, so you do not get sweaty It conforms to the si er as the brochure says and they are not kidding

SUCCESS TIP

Business cards are your friend!

I have found that that most important ing tool that I have outside electronic commu-nication is my business card I give my business card out to anyone who will take it Often your business card can be the best piece of advertis-ing you have I recommend you do not spend cheap in this area Get your business card printed

advertis-on a heavy stock, and ensure it has a clean design and is easy to read The more creative the better, too! You will be surprised where it will end up and how it will gain you business!

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It also has Flexfront Seat Depth Adjustment which means the user can adjust how deep thefront to back dimension can be One size ts all My new Mirra chair is worth every penny Myback and my bank account wished I had purchased it long ago Over the long haul this chair will save me money and frustration Herman Miller has a 12-year warranty on it, (and they say three shi s on the brochure which is exceptional By my calculations I would need venew low-end chairs during that period Besides, the chair is one of the few things that make

my o ce look really cool It is a work of functional art that anyone who does a lot of si ing day

a er day should truly consider owning

What Hardware?

It is almost impossible to give you a guide on what type of hardware would work best for you Hardware changes so rapidly that the words on this page are out of date before they hit the paper I recommend doing research before you purchase your computer system You need to as-sess what your needs will be and build a system around your tasks Below I outline my current computer system and why I chose the components I did Remember, unlike your Mirra chair, one size does not t all Make sure to select your system based on your speci c needs

Dual monitor display

This is not an optional item, and I do not know how I could live without two monitors for my work Dual monitor support video cards are not expensive and are well worth the investment

I place my image on one screen and my pale es on another This investment will save you a lot

of time My monitors are ViewSonics and my dual video card is ATI RADEON X Seriesdual monitor video card

Loads of RAM

Buy as much RAM as you can a ord RAM is like candy you can never have enough My tme has 2 gig of RAM

sys-External USB or Firewire Hard Drives

I use my external Firewire hard drive as a poor man s backup I have two GB USB backupdrives Each day I backup the contents of my documents drive to this external drive This way if

my internal hard drive fails I can go back in time one day Then on Fridays I remove the nal drive from my house and swap it with another external o site drive I take it to a relative shouse for safe keeping I always have at least a week s worth of work o site in case of re orsomeone pulling the ve nger discount on my box I highly recommend you do this I havetwo external gig USB Maxtor drives

exter-Separate Documents Hard Drive

I have two internal drives One drive functions as my program and operating system drive, and the other functions as my storage for les I nd keeping documents and programs on separatedrives serves many functions First, you can back up your document’s drive knowing that you are not backing up Gigs of page les program les and other useless items the OS creates this

goes for both Mac and Windows)! Second, you will improve system performance by keeping these les separated on two drives

Essential Software for the Freelancer

The urge to upgrade your so ware every time a new version comes out is normal But it is

be er to let the MBA part of your brain make that decision The way I decide if I need anupgrade is simple Will this upgrade make me money? For instance, when the latest version of Photoshop comes out, I look at the new features If the new features do not contain any major useful enhancements, then I do not upgrade Sometimes, I am forced to upgrade because a lot of

my clients such as advertising agencies use the latest versions of the so ware and they require

me to use the latest version I call this the “upgrade virus”, because the only reason you need to upgrade is because others have got the upgrade bug – sad but true! Below is a list of low cost or

no cost so ware that I use on a regular basis Of course I have not included the typical so wareyou use, such as Photoshop, Flash, etc

Mozilla Thunderbird (Mac / PC)

www mozilla org Cost Open Source free

Open source e-mail client This e-mail client saves your precious RAM for Photoshop It tures a robust feature set and is easy to use This e mail client is una ected by those nasty scriptviruses, unlike MS Outlook

fea-Mozilla FireFox (PC / Mac)

www mozilla org Cost Open Source free

I use this browser daily The following free extensions make it indispensable

FireFox Adblock Extension (Mac / PC)

h p adblock mozdev org Cost Open Source free

Lets you lter out banner ads by blocking ads from loading You can download blacklists

- known banner servers Even over a high-speed connection it speeds up free e-mail such as Hotmail and Yahoo! by removing the ads

FireFox Developer Extension (Mac / PC)

www mozilla org Cost Open Source free

I use this extension daily It adds powerful functionality to FireFox such as the ability to validateWeb pages and turn CSS styles on and o on the y helping you see how pages are renderedwith older browsers that may not recognize your advanced CSS

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CuteFTP Pro (PC/Mac)

www cute p com Cost Around USD

Excellent commercial grade FTP so ware The latest version supports several FTP servers Ihave found this FTP client worth every penny

Sorenson Squeeze (Mac / PC)

www sorenson com Cost USD

If you need to add video to Flash this is the program for you If you have li le or no experiencewith digital video, do not worry – this program is straightforward, and easy to use For video professionals it o ers many robust features under the hood

Avast Anti-virus (PC)

www avast com Cost Free for home use Professional version dollars

This so ware does not consume many system resources as other popular anti virus tools If youare using it for personal or home use, you can download a free version

MS Virtual PC (PC / Mac)

www microso com Cost USD

It is unusual that you will hear me recommend a Microso product But MS Virtual PC is anamazing piece of so ware It can run Windows se XP and any other OS avorsunderneath your installed operating system This is a must have for any freelancer developing Web sites You can test your sites against many variations of browsers simply by launching a program on your desktop

PDF Creator (PC)

h p sector g wurzel de pdfcreator index en htm Cost Free

This free tool lets you add a PDF print driver to your printer list You just need to select the print driver and print to PDF

TransType (PC / Mac)

www fontlab com Cost USD

If you use Windows and work with Mac only agencies frequently, then this is the best tool for you It will convert Mac fonts to Windows fonts

Back2ZIP (PC)

www fontlab com Cost Free

This is the so ware I use to back up my system nightly It is simple to use and works great

CHAPTER FOUR

when projects go

wrong

Case Study #1 “Brand X” Case study

How poor client communication lead to a creative melt down

I must admit I am hesitant to discuss with people the “problems” I have had with my clients

I guess it is human nature not to want to admit defeat, or that you screwed something up, but

it happens to the best of us I wish I had a book like this when I set out doing freelance ing from other’s mistakes is a lot easier than

Learn-making the mistakes yourself Lucky for you I

have learned that sharing my business

trou-bles is both therapeutic and encourages my

own professional self-development So in a

nutshell, as you read this, you will learn and I

will repeat the mistake again over in my head

ensuring I never make them again!

Even though I have many years of dealing

with well recognized brands and high pro le

clients, each project is always its own animal

I was very excited when a high pro le

cli-ent approached me to produce a really cool

interactive Flash piece for their site I was

fully prepared to impress Brand X as we

will call them to protect the privacy of those

involved) The creative director heading up

the project saw my freelance site and called

me with no references We talked on the phone at some length about the scope and time frame for the deliverables I wrote up an estimate and the client approved it Later on that week the creative director from the agency informed me that he was going on vacation for the duration of the project, and my contact would be with an art director and the project manager This seemed straightforward and this scenario was pre y typical for my agency work Creative directors arevery hands o if they trust their team This gave me some con dence about working with thisnew client Later I would learn this was the kiss of death

Like I said before Brand X was a pre y high pro le client and I was excited to add anotherbrand to my belt Even though I lived eight hours from the agency, I agreed to drive for a one-day meeting to kick the project o ensuring everyone on the team would meet me and feelcomfortable at the onset of the work I drove down on a Sunday and met with the team on Mon-day at am The meeting went well and everyone seemed very excited about the project

SUCCESS TIP

Business Plans are For Banks!

When I talk to other freelance designers and even small business owners, I always ask if they have a business plan Most of them laugh! Why? Because business plans are for banks You only need to de-velop a business plan if others are investing mon-

ey in your company Now this is not to say that business plans are totally useless They can be a good road map to where your business should

be, and could be going I have found my daily business activities to be straightforward enough

so as not to require a business plan Almost every interactive shop I have worked with has created

a business plan at one time or another and they never followed them… food for thought!

Near the end of the meeting I started to ask questions about the style and direction of the ative Since I did not know the brand identity very well, I asked the art director and the account director They could not o er me any clear direction and informed me that I was free to use

cre-my creative judgment” That was a major

mistake When I was an art director for a

major advertising agency, I would have never

told a fresh-on-the-scene freelancer to use his

creative judgment when handling a major

time sensitive Flash project If I were the art

director on the other side of the table, I would

have done some mockups of how I thought it

should look, and gave some very good

direc-tion If I did not have the time to do that, I

would have at least given some examples of other creative work resembling the look and feelthey were a er Unfortunately I was not on the other side of the table

I le this meeting feeling a li le uncomfortable The creative director was away on vacationand the art director decided to wash his hands of any creative direction for this project, which needed to be done yesterday I nally informed the client that I would produce three designsfor them to review in a short period of time

direc-I went home and produced three di erent designs for the project The rst design followed thestyle and color of their Web site a great deal The second design used similar colors, but took a new direction and the third design was really di erent I presented the designs via a confer-ence call to the client They reviewed them, and the initial responses were very positive They all agreed that design number one was somewhat boring, and they all agreed that the two other designs where fresh and could be useful

They let me know that they needed to have the account executive view the designs but overallthey sounded pleased I got o the phone feeling very happy and relieved The sun set and anew day began, and so did my troubles for this project I received a call early in the morning and the client informed me that I was way o track Apparently the account executive decided

SUCESS TIP

Three people whom you should become good friends with: a plumber, a lawyer and an excellent accountant You will be amazed at how much all three of these people can help your freelance business!

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to play art director I guess this needed to happen since the art director was asleep at the wheel! The client asked me to produce more creative, so I did, and the second round of creative met with the same negative reactions Once again, the client could not pinpoint what they did not like even a er I made repeated requests

Mistake:

I let the creative for the project get out of control A er the rst round of design comps wererejected, why did I believe I was going to score a second time around, with no direction or sug-gestions?

Solution:

Assertiveness Yes, you read right You need to be assertive with your clients, and in the end they will respect you more for it In this case, I should have put the breaks on the creative and let them know I did not think we were moving in the right direction I should have told them I needed a be er creative director or I would be unable to begin producing more comps Statingthat fact would have been preferable to what came next

The client decided because the creative up

to this point was not what they wanted, that

they would prefer fewer graphics, and a more

photo oriented piece I could pick out photos

that would suit the project before beginning

the design So, I spent most of the day

creat-ing a lightbox on Ge y Images containcreat-ing

the various photographs I wanted to use I

e-mailed my selections to the art director and

waited The next day I was e mailed a ZIP le

with the images he selected for each screen of

the project I asked what was wrong with my

image choices and he told me they were not

the appropriate style Needless to say, three of

the images I initially selected did make it into

the nal project I suppose the art director

had not noticed he picked the same images as

me

I proceeded to produce animation and Flash action scripting for the project It was a multiple choice game where users could select options and at the end it would have di erent outcomesbased on the user input I programmed some really nice scripting and the rst few slides con-tained some subtle bitmap animations I presented the piece to the client, again with the same reaction!

They nally decided that they would not use me for the project They requested the source lesfor the project and I had a sneaking suspicion that once they had the les in hand then I would

SUCCESS TIP: “Focus Daniel Son!”

As a freelancer we cannot aford to do things mediocre Clients expect the best from us, and trying to handle print, interactive and Web host-ing all in one is not a good idea Focus is key

If you do a few things better than anyone else, your clients will return for more I do not host

my client’s Web sites You can always join a Web hosting provider’s referral program to make extra cash for referring clients Traditionally, I have never recommended Web hosting providers be-cause I cannot control the quality of their service

I always provide a list to my clients and let them choose

not get paid I told the project manager before I released the les I would send her an invoice forhalf of the project price I told him that they did not need to pay for the creative since they did not like it, but I worked over the weekend producing the scripting and logic for the project The project manager agreed and sent me an e mail con rming my invoice I posted the sources forthe project and I quickly realized I was lucky to make it out alive a er this hellish project

Later the next day the project manager noti ed me that their new developer could not lize my source les I asked what was wrong with the les and she could not produce a clearanswer A er a few days of wrangling back and forth the client decided to honor all the work Idid, even though in their rationale they could not use any of the code They paid me for half of the project 30 days later

uti-What I learned:

A er doing this project I will never produce creative for a project where the client cannot vide clear direction Short timelines with big brand names can sometimes require serious hand holding, even when you are dealing with supposed professionals If I could go back in time, I would have stopped the creative until someone could produce examples for me While the cli-ent would not have liked this production halt, it would have been more preferable than the proj-ect going bust, like it did If the project manager dropped the ball, and the art director dropped the ball, I should have reached out to grab it before it fell on me

pro-Case Study #2 When to Fire the Client!

I remember back in the day when Kioken was one of the ho est Web design shops aroundKioken was the stu of legends and myths online One of the things that made Kioken so redhot on the design scene besides their killer clients such as JLo and Pu Daddy was the factthat they red Sony one of their largest clients It was rumored that Sony was red because theywere messing with the designs Kioken was producing for them

Most small interactive shops would never consider ring a client such as Sony We would suck

it up and jump as high as the client wanted It would not ma er if they wanted us to make theirWeb page green, purple and brown – we would produce it with a smile As freelancers and small Web design shops we cannot a ord to loose clients The business climate is still weak so

it is even more important to hang onto the work you already have

Rules clients must follow

Should we produce work for our clients, even though we know it is terrible, just because they are paying? Should we endure pseudo-creative clients who micromanage design until it looks like something your cousin produced using FrontPage and MS clipart? The short answer to these questions is “yes”, but you need to set some strict criteria and guidelines I have estab-lished some informal rules that I use to determine if a client needs to be red These rules donot apply to each and every situation, but they are a good benchmark for discovering if your client is a waste of time

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1 Create a written estimate and a contract.

Have the client sign the contract and the estimate, and have this returned to you no later than the rst week you begin the project I have found that clients that do not return the contract in atimely manner are o en the same clients who do not pay Also clients who are scared to sign acontract might have other issues All too o en if they are paranoid about people double cross-ing them, it means they have thoughts about doing the double-crossing It is like the jealous girlfriend (or boyfriend) theory The girlfriend is jealous because she is really the one that cannot

be trusted, so she does not trust her mate While your relationship with your client hopefully will not be so intimate, you have to evaluate why a client is so hesitant to sign a contract

2 Get at least 30 percent up front

For all my clients I require percent of the project cost up front if it is the rst time I am ing with them A er they have paid for the rst project I normally do not require this on subse-quent projects However, having the client pay money up front tests the waters First, it ensures they are serious about the project There is nothing worse than someone who is “trying you out”

work-to determine if you are a good t You do not want work-to spend hours designing something only work-to

nd this out Keep reading below to nd out how I did not follow this rule and got soaked ond having them pay also ensures they actually have money It is amazing how many peoplewill try to get interactive work done on credit I have meetings with clients frequently who try

Sec-to get huge projects accomplished, hoping they will have the money Sec-to pay by the end

3 Use your Jedi powers

I know this sounds like mystic mumbo-jumbo, but in the 9+ years I have been doing freelance Web design I have always known right from the rst meeting whether or not the client wasgoing to be di cult Do not ignore your gut feelings regarding clients This is not to say thatyou need to pitch your client because they are acting a li le o Spend some time to get to knowyour client – maybe have another face-to-face meeting if possible to understand their personal-ity and the project goals

The Client I ired.

I would have never thought that I could ever re a client A er all I am a one man show lancer, and every project counts towards helping to get the mortgage paid Yet, with many years

free-of freelance and business experience under my belt I have learned when to cut my losses andrun

The names have been changed in this example to protect the innocent or rather the guilty as

it is in the case of this past client.)

The project started when the client saw my Web site and liked the Flash work I produced He sent me a very positive e mail asking me for an estimate for his construction billing so warecompany I called him on the phone and we talked at length about the types of Web sites he liked, and the vision he had for this project Overall, the phone conversation was very upbeat and the client seemed very positive The site was basically brochure ware, but the he informed

me he had other Web sites that needed to be built, and he was looking for a freelancer for the long term This is always exciting to hear when you are self employed I was so thrilled about

future work that I did not focus properly on the task at hand One thing he did mention in this conversation was that he was unhappy with his current freelance designer because he was too slow This normally would have sent warning signals throughout my brain, but the idea of fu-ture work clouded my judgment

The project proceeded, and I sent the client a contract and a request for thirty percent of the cost upfront The client (we will call him Jim for this article) informed me his accountant would be

in the next week and he would have the check cut then Because of all the positive energy in theair and the continual a ery from Jim about how much he liked my portfolio I proceeded withthe project without a contract or the thirty percent payment, thinking it would go great

I produced three interface designs for Jim and I also produced several logo designs for his so ware Two weeks passed I called Jim up and asked him if he had a chance to sign the contract and cut a check Jim explained that his accountant was o sick and he only worked on Fridays

-He promised to have it to me by the next Friday

This same week I presented Jim with the three design studies and over logo treatments Jim sreaction was lukewarm to designs one and two, but he thought design three, with a few altera-tions could be used We discussed the modi cations and I retooled the design based on hisfeedback I presented the design to him the next day via e mail He felt design three even withits modi cations was not jazzy enough for him I e mailed him back to setup another confer-ence call to discuss the design in depth so we could arrive at a be er outcome

Jim felt that I could not produce a satisfactory design He also commented that he did not like the logos I created either (As an aside, I told him at the beginning of the project I was not going

to charge him for the logos, since we were going to do more work together down the line Big mistake All throughout this experience the client was calling me at all hours of the night Nor-mally I would not mind for rush projects or even for clients who are in a di erent time zone I

am exible as a freelancer but he was in the same time zone and there was no urgency He wasall over the place, and it showed in his behavior towards the project and the design

Jim decided that even though I did not produce an exemplary design he would like to continueour relationship His words to me were, “Kevin, I really like your work, and I think you are a great Flash designer But your interface designs are not what I want, and the logos are really not what I am a er either I want to hire you to build just the Flash parts of my Web site I wasthree weeks into the project and Jim had become the client from Hell He had not paid me a penny, and he called me at all hours and did not like any of the design I had produced in the three weeks we were working together At this stage, I did not know how I could produce mo-tion graphics in Flash for him that he would be happy with either

For the rst time in nine years of doing freelance I came to a crossroads I knew that I couldprobably proceed and get paid something for my troubles Yet, I also knew that this client would consume more and more of my time, and I could never get paid At the moment, I did not have a lot of projects on my plate It is very scary as a freelancer to give up work I decided

to re the client I told Jim that I felt we were not a good t I was honest and explained that itwas be er we ended our relationship now before he became frustrated with my work Most oth-

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er interactive companies I have worked for would have turned him over to a collection agency

or gone to small claims court to get back the money he owed I decided not to go this route for several reasons

1 Being a freelancer, I do not have time to go through a collection agency or to go through court It takes away from the time I can spend perusing bigger and be er clients

2 The Internet is a small place, and eventually if you send a client like this to a collection agency, or to small claims court, it will come back to bite you This client was local, so I did not want the relationship to end badly and I exited in a polite manner

Firing this client was an excellent decision and the next week I landed several large projectsfrom various national level clients That time consuming project would have weighed down my

e orts to please them